Israel opens 1K hotel jobs for Pinoys

At least 1,000 job opportunities in the hotel industry will
soon be available for Filipinos following the signing of a memorandum of
agreement between the Philippines and Israel, the labor department reported.

“The Israeli government is opening 1,000 jobs in the hotel
industry for OFWs. They have an extreme demand for hotel cleaners. Although
there are other interested countries who would like to send migrant workers,
the Israelis prefer Filipinos due to their experience with our caregivers,”
Bello said.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is
tasked to facilitate the proper deployment of OFWs to Israel while the labor
department has negotiated to reduce the minimal deployment fee from $8-12,000
to around $2,000.

Qualified applicants can expect a basic salary of around
$1,200, subject to implementing guidelines of the POEA, while the caregivers’
average existing wage is about $1,350.

“Based on experience, I am confident that our OFWs will be
treated fairly in Israel. I spoke with some of our ‘kababayan’ and they have
expressed positive feedbacks with their Israeli employers. Some of them receive
more than the basic salary of $1,350, while others do have more incentives,
such as 40-day vacation,” Bello said.

He further said that the agreement would be on experimental
implementation as Israel looks forward to raising the number of job
opportunities to be opened for Filipinos to supplement their growing tourism
industry.

“Actually the only reason why I went to Israel is only for
the purpose of signing the agreement. They are very keen on signing this
agreement because even before, their demand for hotel workers are already very
high,” the labor chief said.

Aside from Israel, other countries, such as Russia, China,Malta, Germany, and Japan, have also expressed their interest to hire Filipinoworkers to supplement their growing need for the labor force.—Source: Paul Ang / dole.gov.ph